Overview
Buda.com was founded in Santiago, Chile in 2015 under the name SurBTC — a name that signaled its ambitions to become the foundational crypto exchange for the Southern Cone. Over the following decade, it built exactly that: dominant market positions in Chile, Colombia, and Peru, anchored not by technology but by something harder to replicate — trust with local banks.
In a region where major banks have repeatedly refused to provide services to crypto companies, Buda spent years cultivating banking relationships that give its users the ability to deposit and withdraw local currency directly. Transbank in Chile, Davivienda in Colombia. These relationships are the company's deepest competitive moat.
Market Position
Buda holds an estimated 65% of Chile's crypto exchange market, 45% in Colombia, and 30% in Peru — numbers that reflect a decade of first-mover advantage and local trust, not advertising spend. Its trading volume in 2022 was heavily concentrated in Chile (80% of platform volume), but the addition of stablecoin pairs and continued Colombian expansion have diversified that base.
Products
The core product is straightforward: buy and sell six cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, USDC, USDT) against four local currencies (Chilean Peso, Colombian Peso, Peruvian Sol, Argentine Peso). The fee structure is 0.4% for both makers and takers, dropping to 0.2% for monthly volumes above $10,000.
The deliberate simplicity of the asset offering is a product decision, not a limitation. Buda has built its reputation on being a trustworthy ramp in and out of crypto — not a speculative token casino. That positioning resonates with conservative first-time buyers and institutional clients alike.
Newer products include crypto-backed loans (in testing) and cross-border payment rails using Buda's own banking infrastructure — moves toward higher-margin B2B revenue that would reduce dependence on retail trading fees.
The Banking Moat
Understanding Buda requires understanding how difficult bank access is for crypto exchanges in Latin America. Chilean banks famously attempted to shut crypto companies out of the financial system in 2018 — Buda fought back legally and won, but the episode illustrated the structural hostility of traditional banking toward crypto. In that environment, every working banking relationship is a competitive asset.
Even in January 2025, as Binance launched peso services in Colombia, analysts noted that Binance still could not match Buda's depth of local banking connections. The global giant had distribution; the local player had infrastructure.